Guatemala City - A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck in the Pacific near Guatemala's border with Mexico, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Thursday.

A Reuters reporter in Guatemala City said he felt shaking for 30 seconds. There was no immediate tsunami warning, although the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center noted that quakes of this size can sometimes generate localized sea surges.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.